Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 274, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1918 — BLOUSE ANS SKIRT [ARTICLE]

BLOUSE ANS SKIRT

Combination forcing UnchaF ienged Frock Out of Place, rruun uui ui riauc ■ ■ ■. -K ‘‘ Oddest Colors Now Being Used Together—Jet, in Tiny Sparkling Beadlets, Is Popular. t This is a season of practical clothes and quite naturally the blouse and separate skirt, always popularly considered the most practical of costumes when economy in dress is under consideration —for either patriotic or personal reasons —are in the limelight of fashion’s favor just now. A good many of the new skirt and blouse combinations, however, seem to accept the virtue of practicability accorded to them by reason of classification and let it go at that Instead of possessing one separate skirt for wear with various blouses, the woman who keeps up with fashion must now have several skirts and blouses. The whole frock has maintained an unchallenged place In woman’s favor, for several seasons now, but the blouse-and-sklrt combination is pressing it hard. No separate waist, however elaborate and expensive, is suitable for a formal occasion and the best dressed women do not wetfr waists and skirts for restaurant dining or at eyen afternoon performances at the theater, says the Brooklyn Eagle. A waist-ttfid-skirt combination Is supposed to express Informality. It mattershot how different a blouse is from accepted standards, provided It Is different enough. Designers vie with one another to produce original and Intricate designs. The oddest .color combinations are displayed and when colors themselves do not harmonize,. outline embroideries of beads .emphasize the effect of contrast and give a weird yet fascinating oriental effect. What would you think of olive green and cerise as a color scheme? Yet one of the stunning blouses for fall combines those two shades, with artfully placed outlines and embroideries of jet beads, and the result is truly sumptuous. The French houses use a deal of jet—jet in tiny, sparkling beadlets sewed close. together, rather than a large paillette or cabuchon. A Cherult blouse of rust-colored crepe de chine has bands of bead embroidery passing aCrdss a flat vest of flesh-col-ored chiffon. The bands disappear under* the blouse fronts and emerge through slashes about an inch beyond the edge, the series of tabs thus formed flanking the cross-bands on the vest. This Cheruit blouse falls to the hip and the flesh-tinted vest extends several inches below the waistline, giving a very graceful long line. A loose belt fastened with jet cabuchons passes across the vest and around the waist. A narrow band of black fox outlines the neck opening.